The Kaduna State government has insisted that the 21,780 teachers who failed competency test will be sacked.
The ‘Primary Four Test’ was administered by the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB) in June to access their quality in terms of service delivery.
Addressing a news conference in Kaduna over the weekend, SUBEB Chairman, Nasir Umar, said out of the 33,000 teachers that sat for the exam, 21,780 failed to score the 75% agreed benchmark while only 11,000 got 75% and more.
He said no qualified teacher would be affected in the exercise, except those that failed the test which was conducted more than four months ago.
“We started training of those teachers. Unfortunately, we realised that no matter how much we put into the training and monitoring, it will not have a positive result because there was a wide gap between the teachers and the pupils – that was one of the reasons why we conducted the test,” he added.
“This government is doing everything possible to ensure that there is sanity in our public primary schools and due to that, a list of teachers who scored 75 percent and above was released; this does not mean that those who didn’t see their names to remain at home.”
Mr Umar said affected teachers who have served less than five years would have their appointment terminated without benefit while those from five years above would be retired from service with their entitlements in line with the Civil Service Rule.
He hinted that the teachers have been given three months’ notice to prepare for their exit from service, noting that they have become a liability for the state and were no longer trainable.
Explaining how the government arrived at the figure, he said: “This competency test which we organised involved all stakeholders in the education sector, the SSG was the chairman and supported by the Head of Service; Other members include members of the press, members from the NUT, Teachers Registration Council.
“After the conduct of the examination, we fixed the date for the marking, we invited those who mark NECO and WAEC examination to mark our own exams and we told them we want conference marking, that no marker should take any script outside the hall.
“After they finished the work, we still invited other educationists to vet the scripts and they came out with that result. So, it was not something secret and we have the script of each teacher, and if any teacher is not satisfied, we are ready to bring out the script and remark”.